The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

(daringfireball.net)

Show context

do_not_redeem ◴[27 Mar 25 12:29 UTC] No.43492889[source]▶

I don't see how a blog post complaining about vote counts is any more interesting than a comment complaining about vote counts. But ok, I'll bite. The articles are not ranked well because they're not interesting or useful.

The one DF article I remember seeing recently is "Why Can’t We Screenshot Frames From DRM-Protected Video on Apple Devices?" and it seemed like just a fluffy post without any technical info and without any research, just an excuse to dog on other operating systems.

Why do some setups allow screenshots and some don't? His post starts with "I’m not entirely sure" and doesn't get better from there. You can google "what is widevine" and get better info. In reality, different browsers and different OS's are certified to different Widevine levels, depending on whether the content goes through a sufficiently protected hardware path. But in Gruber's world, "streaming services somehow don’t care about what Windows users do" (spoiler alert, they obviously do), and you can take screenshots on Windows because "Windows uses a less sophisticated imaging pipeline" (naturally, because it wasn't created by the sophisticated Steve Jobs!)

These posts are the tabloids of the tech world, and uninteresting unless you need a source to cite to win an argument about why your favorite computer company is morally superior to all the other computer companies.

replies(2): >>43493905 #>>43497460 #

1. jgruber ◴[27 Mar 25 14:16 UTC] No.43493905[source]▶

>>43492889 #

How then do you explain DF ranking #3 from 2007-2021, but dropping to #78 from 2021-2025? Are you saying my writing was significantly more interesting and useful for the first 14 years but dropped off a cliff starting in 2021, and the keen HN audience noticed the change immediately?

You're making a perhaps-legitimate case for why DF should never have ranked well at HN. But the data shows that the opposite is true: for 14 years it was very popular here.

replies(3): >>43494615 #>>43494735 #>>43496352 #

2. k_roy ◴[27 Mar 25 15:24 UTC] No.43494615[source]▶

>>43493905 (TP) #

I've enjoyed your work for close to multiple decades, probably fell on it back in 2005 from MacRumors, but much less in recent times. And I don't want to knock anyone's work, but I'll give you my perspective in good faith.

1. Writing about Apple simply isn't interesting anymore. Nor has it been for close to a decade. They lost me around the butterfly keyboard fiasco.

I know this isn't the full body of your work, but it's plenty of it. As a professional in the tech space for over 25 years, I went from being a devout Apple follower (installed the OSX beta on my Tibook back in the day), to basically not caring. They've gone from being innovative and evolving, and the best mix of Unix+GUI, to just being a system I'm forced to use for work. I'd rather use a Thinkpad/XPS/etc with Linux for anything else.

2. Your writing has gotten dramatically more... cynical over the years? Maybe it's just a side effect of growing older, as I know I have too. But it's also why I stopped blogging on my blog, which was popular enough in enough circles.

Like I said, this is just my perspective, so you can call me full of crap or whatever.

replies(1): >>43496531 #

3. do_not_redeem ◴[27 Mar 25 15:34 UTC] No.43494735[source]▶

>>43493905 (TP) #

I tried a lot of dates and I don't see any step change. I see a gradual decline.

  2006-present: 5th
  2010-present: 7th
  2015-present: 19th
  2020-present: 29th

Who knows why that is. Maybe HN's audience has changed over the decades. Maybe your writing has. Maybe the novelty factor for Apple content is gone. Maybe there's just more competition for the front page now that HN is more mainstream. I just think it's unlikely that PG woke up one day and decided to screw you in particular.

The Simpsons had far too many seasons, but Matt Groening eventually went on to create Futurama. I hope you figure things out.

replies(2): >>43495013 #>>43495015 #

4. znpy ◴[27 Mar 25 16:01 UTC] No.43495013[source]▶

>>43494735 #

> I see a gradual decline

It just seems the guy from DF can't accept that

5. Smylers ◴[27 Mar 25 16:02 UTC] No.43495015[source]▶

>>43494735 #

That “gradual decline” is an artifact of your maths, in which you're gradually changing the weight of recent years.

Consider a sequence with an extreme drop-off: 100, 100, 100, 100, 40. Taking averages of all the numbers, then all but the first, all but the first 2, and so on, yields: 88, 85, 80, 70, 40. That might look like it includes a gradual decline, but clearly there's nothing gradual in the underlying data.

replies(1): >>43495128 #

6. do_not_redeem ◴[27 Mar 25 16:15 UTC] No.43495128{3}[source]▶

>>43495015 #

Right you are, good catch. Here it is broken down by year then.

I still don't see a step change. 2022 was bad, but not as bad as that slump in 2015-2016.

7. ◴[27 Mar 25 18:15 UTC] No.43496352[source]▶

>>43493905 (TP) #

8. ryandrake ◴[27 Mar 25 18:29 UTC] No.43496531[source]▶

>>43494615 #

> 1. Writing about Apple simply isn't interesting anymore. Nor has it been for close to a decade. They lost me around the butterfly keyboard fiasco.

I think this might have a lot to do with it. I considered myself a devout Apple fanboy a decade ago, but every software release and new product they've developed has been less and less interesting. It feels like they're abandoning me as a customer as I get older. And every former fanboy has that one "straw broke the camel's back" moment they can point to where they lost the faith. For you it was the terrible keyboards, for many it was the headphone jack. For me, it was a tiny change: They quietly dropped support for 1080i resolution around the time of macOS 10.5 or 11. Suddenly my Mac that ran my home theater could no longer drive my TV, just because Apple decided "fuck this guy, we're not going to support this anymore."

I still have an iPhone 7. No phone released since then have I really cared about enough to bother upgrading. I don't give a shit about emojis and chat stickers and more annoying notifications that butt into my life.

↑